I was watching a documentary last night where a presenter mentioned that so and so and been in the navy during World War II and had earned two medals for bravery.And it rankled just a little bit.I mean, this individual just happened to be in a really stressful situation (evacuating a boat that had been torpedoed or something) and had coped. Helped a few other people, didn't freak out and then they get a medal.

And it made me wonder quickly (in the way that you do) if I was put in such a situation; would I cope and would I get a medal?

Of course I would.

The way I see it, all you have to do is assess the situation, stay organised and look for the best possible solutions and then mobilise people to do what you say.

Which is exactly what all of us "special" parents do EVERYDAY!

We all try to forget the bad times; that is the way of survival. But think back to the last really shit time you had with your kids and what the outcome was. If you are not in jail or a psychiatric hospit…

Bratty is doing her First Communion next week. A Big Deal in this formerly purely catholic country where education is provided primarily by the church and the rituals of communion and confirmation are part of the curriculum.In autism world it means that you are taking part in a "normal" ritual, important to some folk.Some folk including me. We are a mixed marriage. Mr Hammie is your typical lapsed catholic atheist and I was raised Church of England. I actually insisted on having both babies baptized catholic as I wanted them to be like their irish cousins and able to take part in family rituals if we moved to Ireland. Little did I know at the time that they would be as different from most of their cousins in as they could get; but I am still glad I recruited the atheist catholics in the family to be godparents in order to qualify for baptism in the one holy catholic and apostolic church.

Religion to me is a matter of karma. I mean that if we can use it to teach people to do t…